The data hosting and data centre strategy sets the vision that Scotland’s public sector data hosting is cost-effective, carbon neutral and makes appropriate use of cloud technology, for the delivery of efficient and highly available ICT services.

Annex I - Cloud services for the public sector

Service Model

Advantages

Disadvantages

Exemplar

Platform as a Service

The capability provided to the consumer is to
deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or
acquired applications created using programming languages,
libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The
consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud
infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems,
or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and
possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting
environment. Languages, libraries, services, and tools
supported by the provider.

reduced Capex costs for the following reasons: 1

with hosted managed services all hardware and some of
the software is rented so the customer pays only for what
they use (expenditure may also be more predictable) 2

in addition an added advantage of PaaS is that the
provider manages all hardware, software patching and
update, physical & software security and day to day
routine operational tasks (so there is a reduction in the
need for on-site specialist staff) Given this PaaS can
offer lower Op Ex costs than hosted managed services

convenience and agility is a major advantage of both as
neither entail local installation, so the implementation
and scale-up speeds can be much quicker than other service
types

security is often provided, including data security and
backup and recovery

makes research and development possible for
'non-experts'

flexibility - customers can have control over the tools
that are installed within their platforms and can create a
platform that suits their specific requirements

adaptability - Features can be changed if circumstances
dictate that they should

teams in various locations can work together; as an
internet connection and web browser are all that is
required, developers spread across several locations can
work together on the same application build

potential of vendor lock in

Improvement Service The Improvement Services (
IS) recently
looked at the options for renewing a number of their aged
services that were currently delivered through multiple
suppliers with individual contracts which was complex to
manage. The technology stack and hardware was hosted in
co-location facility.
IS developed a
cost model and business case to understand the cost-benefit of
various options for upgrading and simplifying their services in
scope ranging from reuse and virtualisation of the existing
assets through to renewal based on a managed service wrapped
around an open source platform. The solution is now hosted in a
private cloud for less than half the price that
IS were
currently paying. This also included 24/7 telephone support for
citizens and public sector service providers. No staff costs
were included in this saving as it was agreed upfront that no
staff losses would be incurred as part of the "outsourcing" of
the service. The existing staff and operating model within the
IS has been
adapted with key roles to support the new managed service
contract.

Software as a Service

The capability provided to the consumer is to
use the provider's applications running on a cloud
infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various
client devices through either a thin client interface, such as
a web browser (
e.g., web-based email), or
a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control
the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers,
operating systems, storage, or even individual application
capabilities, with the possible exception of limited
user-specific application configuration settings.

no capex costs as SaaS is subscription based and can
also include upgrades, maintenance and customer support
depending upon subscription level

easily connected as a browser and an internet
connection is all that is required

as software is already up and running on the vendor's
data centre, there is a lack of tasks associated with
licensed software upgrades and deployment time tends to be
much shorter

scalability as the client simply adjusts the monthly
subscription fee, thus removing a significant workload from
in-house
IT
department

Lack of convenience as not everything can be delivered
through SaaS

Software integration can be problematic if the customer
adopts multiple SaaS applications, or wishes to connect to
existing on-premises applications.

University of Dundee - Microsoft Office 365 The University of Dundee is a leading university in
the United Kingdom, internationally recognized for its
expertise across a range of disciplines, including science,
medicine, engineering, and art. The university looked to
replace its GroupWise Novell email system with a hosted
solution to improve reliability and communications and lower
IT costs. The
university selected Microsoft Office 365 because it gave them
an opportunity to go beyond just email (Lync, SharePoint) and
broaden the communication capabilities that it offers to
students and staff. The case for Office 365 was also about
reducing the total cost of ownership of the university's
messaging solution. The university expects to reduce costs by
£500,000 over five years, based on reduced
IT
administration and maintenance, lower infrastructure costs, and
reduced staffing levels required to support the email system
and its users. For hardware, the
ICS
department no longer has to acquire new servers or support the
40 servers previously dedicated to the GroupWise email system.
The university has also avoided costs that would have been
required had it decided to increase storage for the GroupWise
email system

Infrastructure as a Service.

The capability provided to the consumer is to
provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental
computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and
run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and
applications. The consumer does not manage or control the
underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating
systems, storage, and deployed applications; and possibly
limited control of select networking components (
e.g. host firewalls).